[3] Without any financial support, Tan worked as a clerk at Cathay Organisation and also as a mechanic to pay for his training.

In the lightweight category (60–67.5 kg) competition held at the Palazzetto dello Sport, the gold medal was won by Russia's Viktor Bushuev by breaking the world record.

He was advised by the doctors to receive treatment at the Athlete's Village but to do that he would have had to withdraw from the competition and lose the silver medal.

After his retirement from competition, Tan was hired as a gym supervisor by the Singapore Sports Council at the Kallang Family ClubFit in November 1982.

In Singapore, Tan was the only athlete to be bestowed the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal) at the National Day awards in 1962.

[6] On 26 June 1996, a commemorative medallion set by the Singapore Mint was launched to celebrate the 1996 Olympic Games at Atlanta.

Izzy, the official mascot of the Atlanta Olympics, is featured as a three-dimensional image on the other side of the medallion.

In 2000, McDonald's sponsored Tan's trip to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where he joined the Singapore contingent and attended the weightlifting competition.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Singapore's table tennis players Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei, and Wang Yuegu won the silver medal in the women's team category,[7] ending Tan's 48-year status of being the sole Singaporean Olympic medalist.